MKB calls for and commits to thoughtful consumption of resources

30.07.2021

This year, the Earth Overshoot Day fell on 29 July, for the second time. This date is annually determined by the Global Footprint Network (GFN) based on the planet's biocapacity [1] and the population's environmental footprint. Calculations show that by this day we have spent all resources that our planet can regenerate in this year: humanity’s environmental footprint exceeds ecosystems' biocapacity. Starting from 29 July and until the end of 2021, we will be "borrowing" natural resources from the planet and future generations, harming the nature and depriving our descendants of a chance for favourable living conditions.

The environmental footprint is comparable with humanity’s demand for services and resources of ecosystems. We supply ourselves with food products, wood, develop urban infrastructure and need our CO2 emissions to be absorbed by forest communities. GFN's calculations show that today humanity’s demand is 1.7 times higher than the volume of resources our planet can regenerate.

Countries vary by the consumption level and the average environmental footprint per capita. According to GFN, Russia's territory enjoys high biocapacity, exceeding the country's overall environmental footprint, but the environmental footprint per capita in our country exceeds the global average. The high environmental footprint of our country's inhabitants reflects both the high energy consumption of our economy and personal responsibility of each of us.

MKB supports the Earth Overshoot Day campaign and invites everybody to realise that our planet's resources are not infinite, and to pick up some simple, but useful habits.

MKB's team, from its part, seeks to contribute as much as possible to the environmental agenda. Namely, we:

• deliver old ATMs and payment terminals for recycling;
• partner with an environmental NGO "ECA", having sponsored the planting of 10,000 young trees as part of the Plant a Forest project;
• credit higher cashback for waste sorting within a promotion with Trashback;
• collect batteries in separate containers in our offices;
• introduce the "paper-free office" concept, having reduced our paper consumption by 3 times over the last years;
• partner actively with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), having promoted conservation of the North-West pre-Caspian saiga, wild reindeer in the Lapland Nature Reserve, and nectar-producing forests in the tiger's range in the south of the Far East, etc.

[1] Biocapacity can be understood as the supply of ecosystems' services and natural resources provided by the Earth.